Friday, December 4, 2009

I went to this run knowing that I was out to have a fun day, burn some post Thanksgiving calories, and not race. It was just one week post JFK and I was still feeling pretty worn out. Red Rock is a substitute for The Santa Barbara Nine Trail Run. Luis (race director extraordinaire) had warned us this was one tough run. Lots of climbing and lots of rocks. Sounded good to me! About 3 miles in I felt a sharp pain on the top of my foot. I thought it might just be a tight tendon and it would work itself out. Well, it didn't and about an hour later I figured it was a stress fracture. I decided I would drop at the turnaround (20 miles). At least I got to see the whole course since it was an out and back! I got a ride back to the start from Stu Sherman (thank you, thank you) and met up with Kristjan back at the hotel. My foot was hurting pretty bad but we managed to have a great weekend in Santa Barbara soaking up the sun. When I got home Tuesday I went and had an x-ray. The doc said it was probably an old as in 3-4 month old stress fracture that had decided to really break deep at the race. Looking back I have been having foot pain for quite a while but always attributed it to something else and never got it checked out. Now I am in a cast for 6-8 weeks. No fun but lesson learned. I guess I will be well rested for Spring!

I flew out to Maryland a few weeks ago to run the biggest ultra in the U.S. I had decided to run JFK while in California last April running American River 50. Annette said she was going to run it so I thought it would be fun to meet up with her for another adventure in seven months. I also knew that my friend Devon would be there and Meghan (who I met at Where's Waldo) too! It would be another great Girl's weekend! I arrived Thursday around midnight and was told my luggage did not make it. I had a minor freak out because my shoes, orthotics, EVERYTHING was in that bag. I stayed that night near the Baltimore airport with the hope my bag would arrive in the morning. It did and Saturday I was off to Hagerstown. Devon told me where a good little natural foods store was so I stocked up on goodies, picked up my race bag, visited with Annette and met Devon and Meghan for dinner. The next morning I was up dark and early to get to the race start. This race was very similar to American River except the climbing and trail section are in the beginning of the run instead of the end. The trail section was different than trails I am used to in Washington. It had big rocks covered with leaves. I managed to twist my ankle a few times and fall twice. I was trying to keep track of who was in front of me but during that trail section I think I was passed by four women. I figured I was in about 9th place. Not what I wanted but ok considering the field and the fact that there were over a thousand people running this race. Once I was on the path along the river I felt like I could pick up speed and really get going. I think I was able to run that 26 miles in around 3:20. In the last 10 miles of the race I passed five women and came in fourth place behind Devon (course record, oh yea!), Meghan, and Annette. The four of us (and awesome Coach Howard) went out to dinner that night and celebrated a great day.